When Evergreen Solar announced it was filing bankruptcy this
week, the news sparked a flurry of stories pointing out how the “green” solar
panel company had
received money from the federal stimulus.

The Massachusetts-based company was held up as another
example of wasted taxpayers’ dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA).

But Evergreen Solar may be a better example of just how complicated
and difficult it can be to track the massive $821 billion federal stimulus.

Because despite the White House and Massachusetts Gov. Deval
Patrick both citing Evergreen Solar as receiving stimulus money, the
government’s website that tracks ARRA spending could find no evidence the
solar panel company did indeed get that money.

Recovery.gov, the U.S. government’s official website related
to Recovery Act spending, could find nothing showing that Evergreen Solar
received any stimulus money.

It would be tough to blame all the websites that cited
Evergreen as a recipient of ARRA money.

The White House sent out an April 22, 2009, communication claiming the Recovery Act had success in creating jobs. The
White House stated that because of the stimulus bill and new contracts, green
energy companies were looking to hire. The White House then cited Evergreen
Solar hoping to hire as many as 100 people.

The state of Massachusetts put out a press
release citing Evergreen Solar’s involvement with a project funded by the
stimulus.

Evergreen Solar put out its own press
release in October 2010 that their panels were all compliant with the ARRA
and could be used by projects funded by the stimulus.

Pound said that even if Evergreen Solar had received
stimulus funds as a subcontractor, there should have been some record of it.